Working on 'Goodbye Love'

This number takes place straight after Angel's funeral and consists of a heavy argument amongst the group. It consists of Roger and Mimi having their last and final row leading to their goodbyes; along with another argument between Johanne and Maureen, leaving Mark somewhat in the middle of all of it, trying to calm it down. We workshopped this number and explored quite a lot in the rehearsal process in terms of staging and subtext of characters. We wanted to give quite a strength to the character of Mimi showing how much she really does love Roger - perhaps to try to get through to him - so when she goes mad at him for always running away and avoid the relationship, Meg (Mimi) would actually physically push me until she is pulled away - suggesting she would of carried on and its getting worse. Doing this would not only anger Roger even more, but would put a real sense of battle for love into their relationship and convey a real sense of passion from Mimi. I workshopped with my character during this scene in terms of his reactions, especially to Mimi, and his actions when loses control and gets mad back at Mimi. I had a lot of difficulty with what Roger would do when letting off a rage at Mimi because he certainly wouldn't hit her but his anger need to be clearly shown - so we workshooped different ways in which how Roger would act such as; shout singing more than just singing that particular section; showing a real aggression for which walls would be punched; going for Mimi but then being pulled aggressively back; and lots more. I found that the most effective one was actually physically going to hurt Mimi but then refrain from a realisation of that sort of brutality, producing more anger and struggle within his eyes. I thought letting violence out on other walls would destroy the point of his rage being direct purely at Mimi, and the whole holding me back from potentially hurting Mimi would give off the wrong impression of the character. For me, I think the strggule Roger feels toward Mimi comes from the hopelessness and vulnerability he feels when with her - at the fault of his true admiration for her.
This all then leads to a big argument between bestfriends Roger and Mark - which to an audience member, and us the actors in character, would be very shocking and tragic. Myslef and Ashley (playing Mark) decided that there would be a real sincerity to this hartbreaking moment of their falling out if it were predominantly spoken. For me, mostly speaking this section as dialogue instead of singing induces a real, true emotion to the two characters and more importantly a natural feel of reality rather than fantasy (refering the world created by musical theatre and singing through). If it wer spoken, there is an element of straight drama and true acting core - strengthening this aggressive and fierce atmosphere.

Working on 'Without You'

This is a video of the number "Without You" that is sung as a duet between Roger and Mimi. The song is about the struggle between the two characters where being with each other is obviously not working out but at the same time they realise that they simply cannot be without each other. When thinking of ways to set this number, we found that various partner work of contemporary dance - fitting with the genre of music - would perfectly fit this overall them of love, struggle and devotion. Meg and I choreographed a piece that strongly represents Roger and Mimi's desire for eachother but their struggle of being together through movements and motifs.

The one thing I found difficult with this task was being able to still sing the song while performing this dance duet as some of the sections of the number are quite vocally demanding.     

Working on 'Santa Fe'

This is us working on the number 'Santa Fe', a number that explores a sudden dream of Tom Collins to open a restaurant in Santa Fe - being sick a tired of grading papers. Meg choreographed a short, easy routine to teach us all to add a little bit of dance, which well all contributed to. We felt that with the seriousness and hard hitting of the show that we needed perhaps some choreography to lighten the mood - along with the joy of the song. The choreography style is lyrical and very light and flowing, as it gently journeys across the story of the song rather than the choreography stealing attention.
Some changes were made to the choreography as we went along in order to fit the criteria of what wanted fully.